In Memory

William Lagrange Goodwin, 111

 

William LaGrange Goodwin 111 was born on April 11, 1941, in Birmingham, Alabama to the union of William LaGrange Goodwin and Cora Washington Goodwin, and passed on October 10, 2019 at the University of Cincinnati Hospital at 78 years old. William was married to Stella Harris Goodwin and from this union, Channel Goodwin Watkins (deceased) and Terenna Goodwin were born. William had an older sister,  Norma Goodwin Gaston, who resided in Dayton, Ohio and a brother,  Ronald Goodwin of Washington, DC. William is the great grandson of Henry Witt and Morning Jewell Clay Witt. William was a member of the Williams Chapel Methodist Church during his young adult life, and graduated from Patterson Elementary School in 1955, and played trumpet in the band at Patterson School. William attended and graduated from A H Parker High School in 1959 and played trumpet in the marching band for four years. One of Williams first jobs at around 14 years of age was working for Thomas Jesse Witt, affectionately known as uncle Tom. Uncle Tom was the father of Edwin T Witt. Uncle Tom had a very vibrant business, located in Woodlawn, at a major intersection, Georgia Road, and 62nd street, a full time business that operated 7 days a week. Uncle Tom sold a variety of water melons, maintaining an inventory of 100 water melons at a time. Three (3) large coolers featured cold water melons, ice cold water melons as stated on the signs. Uncle tom discretely sold whisky from the water melon stand, the Police would stop by in uniform for a free drink, and Mary Witt Washington, and Sandy Witt Sr. who lived nearby would stop by for a drink, a visit and brotherly love about Livingston, but they would not allow you to hear what they talked about. Uncle Tom never allowed people to hang around, he was strictly business. William worked at the Jefferson County sanitarium for Two (2) years after high school in preparation to enter college. Cora Washington Goodwin believed that everyone should go to college and kept her foot on the accelerator to keep everyone focused in that direction. There was a time when William was able to enter Homer G Phillips, located in St. Louis, Missouri where he graduated after two (2) years and passed the State Board Examination in Ohio. This was a time of profound segregation, blacks could not attend the University of Alabama, and there was no work in Alabama for people of color in the area where he was trained. William moved to Cincinnati and as a very young man and spent his entire adult life working as an X-ray technician until he retired. William loved Jazz music, we attended concerts and went to clubs to see and hear internationally famous Jazz Musicians. William always maintained a Jazz collection of famous trumpet players. William did not attend Church on a frequent basis, but he never strayed from his roots, he was grounded in doing the right things by his parents, and he passed all of the love and everything that  he learned on to his children, Channel and Terena. God is good, we were able to attend the latest family reunion in Chicago in July 2019.